Conventions and Christmas Cliches
by FemaleSpock
Summary: Artegor hates Christmas, especially when he has to attend a GF Coaches' Conference for the duration, is there anything that could possibly make things at least bearable? Pairing: Aarch/Artegor. My 50th GF fic!


Conventions and Christmas Clichés

**Disclaimer:**** I do not own Galactik football and I make no money from this fanfiction.**

**I'm assuming in this fic that they have Christmas on Akillian/in the Galactik football universe. Also I wrote this fic in May/June but I decided to post at this more appropriate time, somehow I didn't think a Christmas fic would go down well in Spring/Summer. Don't ask me when it's set either, I wrote it before the madness of Season 3 even started. **

Artegor hated bloody Christmas; the cheery, cheesy, irritating songs blaring out at you ten million times a day, constant advertising about the perfect gift for a wife, a mother or a child, not to mention all the jolly idiots that seemed to crawl out of the woodwork at that time of year. It was this sort of thing that had driven Artegor to live on Planet Shadows where he was safe from these sorts of annoyances. He'd be there right now if Adium hadn't decided to force all of the Coaches of the galactik football teams to get together on Akillian- supposedly to promote team spirit and so they could all share training methods before the next cup. Like he would give his methods away to his opponents.

In reality though, the gathering was a chance for everyone to reminisce about the glory days when they had been able to play themselves and not just manage from the sidelines. Also, there was a free bar, so it was a drinking opportunity too. That was the only thing that was getting Artegor through the torture. He'd only been there for ten minutes. So far, every Coach had arrived except for Aarch- trust Aarch to be late on his own planet, Artegor thought bitterly.

He arrived ten minutes later, in a typical Aarch dramatic entrance- he walked with big strides and appeared to take up a lot of space in the room, Artegor didn't even think he knew he was doing it. And so the gathering got underway and they were to start on the 'fun' activities that Adium had planned for them.

First they all had to sit in a circle and give three words to describe themselves. It had started with the coach of the Cyclops' who had chosen 'enthusiastic', 'fun' and 'outgoing.' Personally, Artegor couldn't see anything 'fun' about swapping players at half time to try to beat the Shadows, but there it was (Artegor was still suspicious of the Cylops' team even though several years had passed since they had pulled the stunt.) Everyone seemed to be participating fairly eagerly which was pathetic to Artegor's eyes- even the coaches of the Xenons and the Rykers didn't seem too reluctant.

Artegor was the last person to have to say his words. Aarch had been second to last saying that he was 'friendly', 'determined' and 'optimistic.' Artegor hadn't actually considered what he was going to say for his words, he had been too busy mocking the idea in his head, but his time had come and they were looking at him expectantly.

"I am…'disciplined', 'self-contained' and 'aloof'," said Artegor, giving Aarch a pointed look. He couldn't honestly think of any words to describe himself so he had merely used words that Aarch had used to describe him during their first argument in which Aarch had railed against him for not being spontaneous and extroverted enough. Whilst it was true that he and Aarch were 'friends' now, he still occasionally forgot that he and Aarch weren't enemies anymore and fell back into old habits.

The rest of the morning was no better than it had started. The next activity had been one of those 'trust exercises' where they had to fall back into each other's arms- the Coach of the Cyclops had certainly struggled with that because everyone was so much bigger than him. Then they had to play some awful team game involving buckets and water. All in all he wanted to kill Adium for her stupid ideas and he still had a day and a half of it left. They had been allowed to do what they wanted for Lunch and so Artegor had wisely gone back to his hotel room and ordered room service- that way he didn't have to deal with people.

And then he was back for more 'fun-filled' activities that Adium had foolishly thought would bring teams together for more harmonious relations during competition time. Artegor hated that mentality, there was a reason it was called a competition…they were supposed to be competitive not being all friendly and cheerful. The activities were marginally more football related and so they weren't quite as irksome as the touchy-feeling trust exercises of the morning.

They were all asked to name their best player on their team and explain why. Naturally he had chosen Sinedd.

"Sinedd is by far my best player, he is very skilled as a striker and he isn't afraid to use force to get what he wants, he is a truly determined player," he said, in explanation.

"I knew you were going to pick Sinedd," muttered Aarch.

"As I knew you were going to pick Rocket," Artegor shot back, Aarch could be very irritating at times.

When the day was finally over, Artegor crawled relieved into his bed and hoped with all hope that the next day's activities might be cancelled through some freak accident. He willed himself not to think about Aarch; he'd told himself that he was completely over him even though in his heart he now knew it wasn't true. Being 'just friends' didn't really work for Artegor and the whole situation was making him intensely irritated. It was so much simpler when I hated Aarch, he thought before drifting off to sleep.

The next day was entirely devoted to Christmas activities. The morning was to be spent making Christmas cards and decorations etc. Adium must have thought that they were in Nursery school or something. The afternoon was a Christmas party, Artegor had never been too fond of parties and Christmas parties were the worst sort of parties in his opinion- he would have to be on his guard not to get stuck under any mistletoe, the Coach of the Rykers had been giving him flirtatious looks.

The morning passed slowly and Artegor had a pathetic Christmas card and some paper snow flakes to show for it. It wasn't like he even had anyone to send the card to anyway. Then they had lunch and had to return for the dreaded party. Everyone else was in the festive spirit, with much drinking and general merriment. Artegor was counting the minutes until he could return to the Shadows planet, where things were normal and he wasn't surrounded by perky galactik football coaches. Besides, who knew what Sinedd might be up to in his absence- something illegal he'd wager; Sinedd always seemed to be involved in suspicious activities of some sort.

So he stood there, drink in hand, gazing out of the window whilst some of the other coaches danced to tacky, awful Christmas tunes. This is my punishment, he thought, for my behaviour when I had Smog poisoning. If there was a hell then this was truly it.

Then the music changed and on came 'All I want for Christmas is you.' He'd always despised the song; it was even tackier and cliché, why did everyone have to bring romance into everything even a holiday as unromantic by nature as Christmas. Still, it made him think, at one point all he could have wanted was revenge but now….he wanted Aarch back, even after all of those years.

He wasn't going to do anything about it, he'd done enough already, he couldn't help but feel slightly humiliated by his behaviour towards Aarch whilst he was under the influence of the Smog because with every threat and insult what he had really been saying was 'why did you leave me? Why don't you love me?' He hated that feeling, it was so pathetic.

"Artegor," Aarch said, in his booming voice, coming over to see him at the worst possible moment. Aarch had no tact or sense of timing.

"Yes?" he said, trying to sound neutral and not antagonistic.

"There's no need to look so miserable, have fun, enjoy yourself!"

"Aarch, over the years you have known me, have you ever known me to enjoy a party?"

"Well…" Aarch started, recalling a particular game of spin the bottle at a particular party in their distant past.

"Don't answer that!" Artegor immediately cut Aarch off, knowing exactly what he was remembering- it was awkward and dangerous territory to over their history.

But of course, Aarch didn't know when to stop. "I'm feeling kind of nostalgic, let's go to my hotel room so we can talk alone."

"We're not young anymore Aarch, we're too old to be 'best buds' and 'hang out' all the time."

"Come on, we're not that old, besides we lost time when you decided to resent me for leaving the Shadows," Aarch said, with an easy laugh.

"Fine," Artegor said, grudgingly, at least he would be away from the dreadful music in Aarch's room. "Let's go."

They discreetly left the party and went up to Aarch's room. It was pretty much the same as the one that Artegor was staying in but for a few minor details.

"Could you get that for me?" Aarch asked, pointing at a random piece of paper on the small desk in the corner. Artegor obediently went over to where the paper was and picked it up.

It said 'look up.' He was confused but he looked up as an immediate response. He was standing underneath mistletoe. Aarch in the meantime had followed Artegor over to the mistletoe.

"Well, you know what that means, Artegor…" Aarch said, mischievously.

Artegor did know and as it turned out he wasn't too opposed to kissing Aarch again. He dutifully leaned in and they shared a lingering kiss. Artegor figured that maybe not everything about Christmas was bad, even if getting caught under the mistletoe was cliché.

The next day….

"You know, if you had wanted to get back together, you could have just said instead of playing childish games," he remarked.

"It was more fun this way, besides, it wasn't my idea, the whole thing was Adium's idea- that's why she arranged the whole 'Coach convention.'"

Artegor couldn't think of a single thing to say in response to that so he merely rolled his eyes, glad that he was going back to the Shadows where everyone was far saner (even under the effects of Smog).

**Finished! Please review! And Merry Christmas/Winter Solstice everyone!**


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